The Burning to the Ashes
by CouriersRevenge
Summary: OC This story spans the later years of the Clone Wars up till the Early years of the Imperial occupation. Both main characters are pushed into an interglatic technology race in which both sides are racing against the clock. The first will go to unseen planets, meet new races and prepair for war twice, while the other struggles with a loss he never seen coming.
1. Chapter 1

**I Just want to start out by saying that i do not own Star Wars, I am not in any way assocated with LucasArts, Disney, and or Bethesda games. This is a completely off cannon story which will also hold some ideas of my own, not limited to Planets, technology, and/or people. I will say however, the more people who like and subscribe to my story, the faster i will probably get it done.**

Chapter 1: A glimpse in the future and the beginning of the end

Katos Piith

Secret asteroid base, Hoth System

Date: 3 years after Order 66

After waking up to the sound of an alarm going off, Katos started to notice the remains of an iron guarder had pinned him to the floor. Around him was the remains of chaos; the bodies of Stormtroopers and those of the resistance littered the floor of the bridge. Pools of blood mixed with the piles of ash filled the compartment with the smell of iron and burnt flesh. Reaching out to the force, Katos slowly lifted the guarder from his back, propping the other end on the remains of the science officers old work station. As he started to crawl from our under the rubble he began to notice that his left leg had been dislocated and he had a minor gash that bleed mildly enough that he noticed it before his augmentations started to go to work to seal the wound. I have to hand it to AIHI, he knew what he was doing when he installed my new innards. In an attempt to stand, Katos grabbed on to the commanders computer station and started to pull himself up. Halfway up, an opened section of the council sparked electricity within the scorched metal.

After gaining his footing he limped over to the commanding officers chair in order to see about his leg and also to get an update on the damage to the space station. The chair was about a meter and a quarter tall with a tall back and swiveling keyboard and monitor on the arms of the chair; it was utilitarian gray with red padding for the cushions. Sitting down Katos took in the sight of what was his bridge; It was a circular room about thirty two meters in diameter, and most of the lights were out beside the occasional flickering of the emergency lights and the sparks that shot from the damaged instruments. The room was level and had two doors that led to separate adjacent compartments on each side of the circle (Left of the chair was the Commanders personal office and to the right was a small storage locker that held enough food rations for a month and enough munitions to hold off an entire regiment of Imperials.)

While behind the chair was a longer computer terminal which was labeled weapons which separated two lifts that transported personal across the entirety of the complex. Turning to attend to his leg, Katos turned the chair a full hundred eighty degrees in order to face the Emergency medical kit that was installed in the floor. Opening the med kit he pulled out a DP-41 Disrupter Pistol (the frame of the weapon is rectangular [about Fifteen CM in length] with a long hand fitted grip; there is a monitor on the right side of the weapon to display the ammunition remaining. The left had an adjustment knob to regulate the power of the blasts. Its barrel stretched the weapons length to just shy of a full 18 cm, due to a compensator/energy recycler connected to the end of the weapon), a syringe of pain medication and a large roll of medical tape. Katos examined the DP first, noticing that the weapon held scuff marks across the entire frame and the recycler on the barrel. By pressing a button on the left side of the weapon (to the back and up from where the trigger is located) Katos was greeted with the warm humming sound of the weapon warming up. The monitor flickered to life and displayed a digital count of the battery percentage, which registered around 40%. On full throttle The DP-41 could melt threw fifty Stormtroopers and leave nothing but a pile of ash but it would give the operator only five shots. And seeing how it had only forty percent left, the only logical option left to turn the weapon down to its lowest setting, which would kill but one at a time and at a rate of 2% a shot. Turning to the front of the bridge Katos activated the monitor on the chair and started to activate the stations self-damage assessment and control settings.

The monitor came alive and shown the damage report, which could be worse considering the hell storm the place had been through; the image shown on the monitor was 6 levels from top to bottom with the bridge on the second level from the top of the complex. On both First and last levels are retractable hanger decks fully equipped with "repurposed" imperial TIE fighters, bombers, and a shuttle in the lower deck. The floor above the bridge was designated the crew quarters; which was highlighted in red signaling that the pressure seals had broken and had vented atmosphere directly into the asteroid This is why I hate space, Katos thought grimly to himself. The upper flight deck itself had been totally destroyed and was indicated by an alternating color scheme of yellow and red while the lower had minimal damage and was depicted in standard blue. Katos turned his attention towards the section below the bridge labeled as engineering; the monitor was flickering a notification that the FSD was warmed up and ready for usage. This brought a smile to Katos, but just for a second as he started to punch in the coordinates to the resistances designated meeting site; however as the final stroke on the keyboard fell the message "ERROR: BRIDGE FSD CONTROL IS OFF-LINE MANUAL OVERRIDE IS NEEDED". "Damn-it" Katos yelled aloud as he read the message. This is going to involve me moving down to engineering Katos thought to himself as he checked the status of engineering and was met with startling news; Imperial engineers were outside the FSD core. The fact that the core blast doors held on that long astonished Katos to the point of actual amusement, something he hadn't felt for a long time. Looking down at his leg, Katos took a deep breath, and started to reach out with the force with his leg and started to pop it back into place. During the agonizing struggle he noticed a dead Bothan slouched over one of the control panels with an eye patch covering his left eye.

RNS Liberator

24 hrs from planet Destros

Operation: Frostbite

Katos Piith

1.5 years before Order 66

"Wake up kid…" a gruff sounding voice commanded after shaking Katos out of a lite sleep. He turned his head to find himself in the presence of Commander Maik Tier. Commander Maik was a Bothan with a short square snout that extended about four inches from his actual skull. He was covered head to toe in neatly trimmed grey fir and had a longer growth of black hair under his nose that resembled a Fu Manchu. At this point he was dressed in a black sleeveless tunic that buttoned from both sides; in which the first three buttons on the left side were unbuttoned and the flap was folded to his right side on his left were several campaign medals from his past assignments with the Republic Volunteer Militia. Katos starts to place his feet on the floor as he looks up and sees Maik throw a tunic at him from out of one of his carry bags. "Mission briefing starts in about forty-five in Squad meeting room 3, deck six. Be there or Ill have Master Ol put you on mess duty for the duration of this trip" Maik warned as he walked out of the door pressing a button to close the door behind him. Katos stood up and looked to the mirror to the left of his bed. Katos was about 6 foot even and was slightly heavy set but strong, making his appearance in battle armor even more menacing in combat. He ruffled his mid length lite brown hair and stared back into his bright blue eyes in exhaustion, eyeing the lines in his only twenty year old face that were not there at the start of this expedition.

The entire trip had taken almost two weeks to travel from Courscant out to the middle of the unknown region of the galaxy and had just now stopped for the final preparations for their assignment. After dressing in the white heavy tunic that Maik had thrown at him, Katos started to move towards the access lift at the end of the hall bumping into several clone engineers going through a last minute inspection to insure that everything was in top condition for the upcoming assignment.

Reaching the door to the access lift, Katos pressed the activate button and the door opened within seconds revealing an older man, probably in his early fifties, pale and slender with white hair, wearing clone style armor that had been modified to allow for maximum mobility and a young woman, possibly in her early twenties, in traditional dark colored jedi robes. The first thing that he had noticed was her bright green eyes which compared only to seeing a lush jungle world for the first time. She was about Five' eight" with neck length strait black hair and an athletic build, and a graze on her left cheek which only slightly disrupted her natural beauty. Stepping into the lift, Katos felt an air of discomfort between himself and the two jedi who stood in the lift with him. After reaching to the terminal to select the floor, he noticed that the exact floor and area had been selected on the terminal before him. "I guess I will follow you to!" Katos said with a joking tone however he had only cracked the face of the young woman who noticed her master staring daggers at the both of them as the doors had closed and the lift started to move upwards and then sideways across the ship. The trip in all took about forty-five seconds however with the older man in the lift with them it felt like a full hour.

Exiting the lift as quickly as possible without creating a sceene, Kantos made his way down the corridor to the designated briefing room Miak had informed him about. the entrance was small with a forign object scanner arching over the door. Stepping up to the scanner, Koha placed his thumb over the scanner and was meet with the sound of pullies in the storage box unit. After a few seconds, it clicked; as the hatch opened up with an empty box in the mouth. Placing his belt and weapon in the box he began to walk through the scanner. After exiting the scanner, the first thing that fully grabbe's his attention was the fact that the floors were not actually the floors; all four walls, the floor, and ceiling were all double lared with force field generators that served as anti-espionage equipment, preventing anyone from listening from the other rooms or placimg audio bugs on the walls. at the center of the room was a communications jammer that prevented anyone with a wire or any visial bugs from signaling out. Besides the metal podium at the front of the room, the staging area also consisted of a hologram projector, and three seats; two for the jedi in charge of their unit as well as one for Miak Tier, who was the actual organizer of the team.

Finding a seat on the outer row, next to a rather stern looking Maroidian with a black tribal tattoo spanning the length of the right side of his face from his hairline to the start of his jaw. Besides himself and Maik; he had counted twenty-eight members of their party, all but three were men and all but five were actually considered human. The Wookie with the Boltcaster and bandolere battery packs looked his way while carrying on a conversation with Mik and a very attractive Tiwiling he would have to get to know better on the return trip. Just as he started to get comfertable the deep sound of a Bothan pierced the air:

"Officer on deck!" Mik shouted with the sound of a praticed navel officer. The entire group stood up at attention as the older jedi and his apprentice walked through the door; lightsabers connected to the cloth underbelt that kept the leather of the utility belt from rubbing them dry. The girl sat on the chair away from Maik while the man stood at the podium. "Adease," the old jedi said with the same ammount of pratice in his voice as the former. Everyone spread their legs and placed their hands behind their back like well oiled machienes. Not a single man, besides himself, was unfimilar with the military lifestyle. Most were seasoned combat vets from worlds that had just ceased a civil war inorder to fight in the war and some were bounty hunters who had worked for the order before.

Katos however was an ancient technology expert, brought along to apraise any "artifacts" that the sith had in there posession at the time, plus the fact that he was prety handy with a Gauss Rifle weighed in his favor. Katos had spent most of his childhood on the forest moon of Yavin IV, which a thousand some odd years before had been home to a sith enclave base and fron there grew a love for antiquated technology. This might have landed him the position for a museam, however his arival to the jedi temple in an old Sith recon ship that he had repaired, under the guidence and inspection of his father, was a resume within itself.

The older Jedi motioned for the group to sit, and started the hologram projector. "I want to make one thing perfectly clear," the old man announced, "Everyone in THIS room dose not work for the Galatic Republic..." his words coming out like stone. Katos felt himself shift in his chair and noticed everyone else do the same. "Every man and women in here works for the jedi order, and as such you take orders from me; anyone who has any objection to that can leave and find help elseware on the ship." The entire room was silent, save for the sounds of the hologram projector. "Ok then," He said affirming everyones decision waiving away the clone troopers, sealing the door as they left. "My name is Master Ol-lee," he continued on with only half the edge he had in his voice he had just seconds ago. "The woman sitting at the front of ghe room with us is my apprentice, Koha Guild." The young woman waved a reserved wave to the croud. Turning to the tablet on the podium, Ol typed in the information bringing up images of several starships in formation. "And this is an image that was taken by a satlite based in Tattooine," Ol announced as the entire room stiffened at the mere sight of the ships. The image was of a standerd CIS battle cruiser followed by two freights with the Confederit insignias and what looked like a tourist ship that contained a greenhouse, whos windows were covered over with blast covers. "This image was taken about three weeks ago," Ol continued on, his words holding more weight as he spoke "and as of two weeks three days ago, they have been followed by recon craft since they passed through republic space." Someone in the croud raised their hands; "Just out of curiosity how have you been monotoring their movements without knowing the actual coordinance?" spoke a mans voice from in the croud. Ol responded "As of right now that information is on a need to know basis; the question shoud not be how we have tracked this fleet, but why?"

Ol turned to the pannel and pulled up a map of the entire galexy and zoomed in on a section of the unexplored zone bringing up the XYZ coordinates of the fleet and of the Republic fleet as well. " This section of space," Ol continued, "Has remained off hyperspace maps for centuries, however about six to eight thousand years ago when hyperspace was still in its infancy stage, an explorer by the name of Takkal Pallall found a world of ice with life clustered around areas with volcanic activity." The entire room watched as a period star map was accelerated forward in time, the point on the map slowly movimg towards the spot close to whare the Confederate fleet had stopped, stopping right on top of the marker. "According to Takkal's logs, there was very primitive forms of life when he was there, along with some sort of fungal life that held an electric charge and actually casted bolts of electricity twards its pray, in order to sustain itself and to gain new ground; yes?" he asked as a slender hand was raised. "So our mission is to stop the Sepretists from retriving some mythical plant on a planet that we only THINK we know the location of?" There was a small giggle from the crew, an even a small smile from Mik's kay-nine like face, however Ol's look wiped it from everyones mind as he started to continue. "No, we are going to a planet that we know IS there in order to claim the resources for ourselves!" Pulling up an image of the current fuel rations for the fleet; "We need this planet in order to resupply our fight, and without it they will win."

"You all will recieve packets with information on what your assignment is," Ol stated with more of a matter of fact tone than the rest of his breifing "Of the Thirty of us only twenty of us will head to the surfas initally, while the other ten will stay behind as backup if it is needed." At this point a cart was uncovered Mik, revealing stacks of hard copy files. Another Mercinary raised their hand, speeling when acknolged; "Sir; What the hell is that?" the man said in an almost innosently confused voice. Ol grinned in amusement and answered "Son, that is paper," as everyone started to chuckel. "A-team will meat up at Troop transport C9-X5, and B-team will meat up at the Equilibrium." Ol stated with amusement still traced in his voice. "Everyone needs to rest up and be at condition yellow within four hours before we drop out of hyperspace!" the voice continued.

Miak looked at the group "You heard 'Em, lets get a move on!" Everyone moved up to the cart that held the files. Being in an isle seat, Katos was one of the first people to recieve the file; it was about a gram in weight and wrapped in a vacumed sealed bag comparible to what ration food came in, and was about a 31 centimeters in length. Katos left the room heading to the the lift that he had ridden to the breifing in, all the time opening his parsel. Pressing the button he opened to the first page; it held a profile picture, some personal information (such as physical features and medical information), and towards the bottom of the papar he spotted his positions;

1.) Co-pilot

2.) Enginere

3.) Designated Marksmen

Drifting his eyes up and down the paper, Katos searched for what ship he was on. _The Equilibrium _he thought to himself in a state of bewilderment. _Now why would they do that? _He continued on as he stepped into the lift. As he turned around he noticed the young apprintice jogging to the lift. As the doors started to close she reached out with the force and walked the rest of the way. "Sorry about that!" she stated sweetly, her voice sounded something like what you would have expected from a woman from a university; it was quieter and lest demanding than her masters, coupled with an air of laxed manner about her, she made for a very sweet sounding voice. The folds of her robes tried to hide her slender, athletic figure, however it failed as she turned to activate the lift with her right hand and brush a lock of her long red hair out of her face "I seen you on the rooster!" she said in a voice that was a little more grateful than he thought it should have sounded. "You on the Equilibrium?" He asked, sounding a little to flirty than he had intended. Koha across to him and said "Well i guess we are stuck togeather then?!" the sound of more of a question than an observation. Turning to her he about said something as the doors to the lift closed.

Brutic Murr

Planet Dantooine

1.5 Years before Order 66

The sound of wooden swords clacking against each other was not an unfimilar sound to the people of Dantooine, on the contorary, that was usually accompanied with the laughter of children and the dreams of the production of great deeds like the heros of old. However there were no children playing at this moment; the laughter was replaced with grunts of pain, the smell of perfuse sweat and the sounds of a real battle taking place in the field. The tall straw grass came up to waste hight on both men, who were both about 2 meters tall, and both with the build of seasoned swordsmen. The elder of the two, whos greying hair pertruded from the opening at the bottom of his pratice helmet, advanced, swinging with an uppercut followed by a quick parry from the younger mans thrust. "You can do better than this!" the elder said stepping back, to re-adjust his position, this time taking a firmer stance as the younger man came in with a flurry of blows, that the old man blocked sucessfuly, the last being an overhead strike that was flicked aside. On the last blow, the young man pivoted on his front food while his masters pratixe sword was still recovering and planted a stiff side-kick to the old mans ribs. The elder stumbled, but reclaimed his footing as the enslaught continued. the elder startes to push the attack, his hands even more deafend than they were just seconds ago, strike after strike came from both sides until the elder finely met his mark. The elder had blocked a blow that could have cleaved a man strait in half with a true Alloy sword, something that split both swords into two pieces that sent splinters and shards of the weighted core across the field. At that moment, the younger man still stunned by what happened; the elder took his section of sword and hit him in the left rib set with a loud crack of wood on flesh.

The younger man took off his helmet, revealing his shaved head and his pained, but hansom features, while shouting "EVERY TIME!" with the sound of the discomfort showing in his voice. The old man removed his helmet with his left hand, revealing the older man with a smile on his worn face. He looked at his apprentice, shook his head sideways and stated, trying to keep his ammusement to himself, then stated "You let yourself get destracted! You knew we were still at pratice!" The apprentice started to smile some. "You could have at least just _tapped _my ribs!" the apprentice retorted, the disconfort leaving his voice, as he rubbed where the broken pratice sword had hit him. The old man looked at him with only a trace of a smile still left on his face. "Well it i would have only _tapped _you on the ribs, you probably wouldn't learn anything; would you Brutic?" the older man said as he walkes over to pick up the shards of wood and weight from out of the field. "Now don't worry!" The old man started as he pickes up a long section of what was once part of the blade with part of the core which clung to the material as if it was forged as part of it. "Your old Master Kiz-sar wouldn't tell a sole about you getting hit by an old man!"

Brutic lookes at his master with the same dismay he looked apon him with as a young boy of thirteen years old when he had selected him for apprentice-ship over nine years ago. Technicly, his time undet Kiz-sar, was up over two years ago, but after serving out in the field for almost a year and after several beurocratic caused farces, resulting in the death of the other jedi team he had been working with, he decieded to turn to the only man he knew who could help him through this mentally and to help him retrain in the classical saber useage. Kiz-sar, who had been retired from actual field work for the past two years, welcomed his former student back under the condition that they would remain equals; and with the old equipment almost litterally buried underneath the enclave, they began retraining him in the classical saber useage along with increcing both of their understanding of the force.

Kiz-sar tossed a section of sword to Brutic, who in turn, used the force to pull it directly into his hand as it started to fall short. The older jedi walked to his old apprentice, and patted him on the back as they started to make the journey back to the enclave's main building.

The return trip took about an hour over its usual twenty minutes, due to the fact that the off planet merchants had arrived during the time the two jedi had been at practice. The sun had just started to set when they had arrived into town, and around this time, the place had sprung to life. Weapons merchants offering swords made of phrik, weapons of different makes and models, and even an old set of sith assassin armor, that came with a price to match the rarity. Most people huddled around the production/agriculture booths; machinists tools almost the size of a small speeder, several domesticated animals were being auctioned off as the two passed by the newly assembled auction block. The two jedi split up for some time after the block, Kiz-sar moved further on down the line to what looked like a book shop as Brutic slowly made his way to a small booth which contained a jewelry kiosk.

Unlike his master, Brutic had no problem selling "commondeered" items like weapons and scrap computer hardware from the droids that had been damaged throughout the war. Over the year he had been out in the field, Brutic had amassed a small fortune from the Huts, along with several other political administrations that had inquired about his "recycling", who paid twice the worth of the equipment if it was intact and actually in the machines still. The money he saved was buried here on Dantooine; along with a cashe of his undold merchandice, ont in a cave in the costal area of the planet.

The jewler was a human male, who was short in stature and was about as wide as he was tall. At the moment, he was sizing a womans finger for an ring with what looked like her lover, while he and the merchant tried to haggle on a price. The case Brutis stood infront of at the moment looked as if it was filled with neak chains, some with elaboret gems already placed on the chain, others with lockets connected to them. Brutic gravitated to a thicker silver chain with an empty stone set-in. "Can I help you today sir?" the squat man asked. Brutic pointed to the chain, his finger toutched the chain with a little more force than he had ment to. "How much are you asking for that necklace?" Brutic asked with a sense of assertiveness to his voice. "That one?" the little jewler pointed with his left hand, "300 credits and that is almost giving it away!" The little man stated as more of a matter of fact than a sales pitch. "How long would it take to set a stone in?" Brutic asked, as he looked over his shoulder to see if his old master was anywhere in sight. The squat man put his fingers on the section skin that bridges the nose next to the eyes, rubbing the area, looking up at him and asked " What size stone are you talking about?" he asked. " Probably just large enough to fit into the pendant area that is there." Brutic responded as he started to reach for his pouch on his belt which contained not only his credits but also a small moss green gem, about five millimeters in diameter and about 25 millimeters in length. The stone was in an octogonal shape with a small nicks out of the side where the stone was pulled from its main base, at one end of the stone it starts to thin out to about a half of a millimeter in diameter while the other end created the eight sided face that came from the nature of the crystal.

Throwing a thousand credit piece on the case, Brutic looked at the squat man and stated in a hushed tone "I need this done in an hour; do you think you can handle it?". The short jewler looked up from the credit piece, after verifying the actual worth of the piece and said "I will have my people complete it in twenty minutes!" as he turned around and went into the ship. Brutic looked upon the crowd, dismayed by the amount of people who came to the event; from the crowd, it looked like everyone from the surrounding villages had traveled the distance for the merchant landing. In the space between the parked ships, Brutic watched as a crew started to construct a small fighting ring out in a field away from the actual stalls. The merchant came out of the ship necklace in hand; "It was a pain, but I got it in!" the jewler stated, smile on his face. The necklace was as wonderful as he hoped it would have been; The gem clasp had to be removed, however the gem had a hole drilled into the thinner section, in an area where the crystal would not break off accidently. Nodding to the man, Brutic moved back into the crowd in order to refined his old master.


	2. Chapter 2

**ONCE AGAIN I DON'T OWN STAR WARS, DISNEY, BIOWARE, OR ANYONE ELSE WHO CRANKS OUT STARWARS RELATED STORIES. I AM JUST SOME GUY WHO HAD AN IDEA AND COULD'NT STAND NOT HAVING IT ON "PAPER"!**

Chapter 2: Preparations

Katos Piitt

Operation Frostbite

12 hrs. Till arrival

RNS Liberateor

Sith Recon ship Equilibrium

1.5 years before 66

Katos, did not do much with the half day he had, during which he wrote in a log book he was given when he was twelve by his father, who believed that everything should be documented first on paper, because no one has ever been able to read on a dead computer screen. The rest of the time he spent sleeping and went to the mess for what he thought would have been breakfast, but was in reality supper for the standard clock. After lunch, he slipped down to the hanger bay where his ship, The Equilibrium, laid parked on the hanger floor on the bottom level with the troop drop ships. The Sith Recon ship was not as the title sounded; the craft itself was actually about the size of a personal starship for merchant; the overall size of the ship was about 115 meters in length and about forty meters in width, with the crew area about two and a half meters in height and the outer area of the hull about twenty three meters in total thickness. The hull itself was built in an areodinamic fashion, where the edges of the craft were tapered off into angles, in order to cut out any drag encountered during atmospheric flight, as well as cutting down on the overall visibility of the ship while in space. The ship was actually built as a Recon and observation vessel, equipped with its own small mess, double fuel capacity of other cruisers its size, as well as computer monitoring equipment and pull out racks, in order to make living in the ship a little more homely. Aside from the ascetic features, the ship also is equipped with two twin disrupter cannons and a multiple ordnance cannon (which, at the moment was equipped with photon torpedoes and a ion cannon) on the front as well as a gattling anti-vehicle lazer on the tail in between the twin thrusters, along with a large stealth generator that ran off of part of the second fuel tank.

Towards the center of the small kitchen area, moderate section of flooring was removed, revealing a small maintaince shaft that stretched down about a meter and a half, stretching about three meters in both directions, if you looked under the remaining panels. In the area, Kantos crouched next to a small footlocker he had grav-locked into the bottom of the area, in order to deter theft of any of his equipment, as well as maintaining an emergency kit in the ship at all times. He had striped out of his loose on ship bound gear, and started to pull off his shirt as he heard the sounds of footsteps coming up the ramp. He started to pull over a thick under-shirt that could be worn comfortably under the armor he carried with him into battle and was shocked to see Koha coming from around the corner. "Oops! Sorry!" She said with a tint of a blush starting to come from her cheeks as she averted her eyes from the dressing man. "It's all right," Kantos said as he finished pulling the long sleeved shirt over his head and over his uncovered and slightly heavy body "If anything, I should apologise to you for not locking the door!" He said in a jokeing manner. Koha started to look again as she started to laugh at the jest, making her feel a little more comfortable in the situation. Kantos started to pull out the body of his Sith lite Recon Armor, which was fully black paint that covered the jet-pack that was attached from his shoulders and again at where the small of his back would be. As he slipped it on, by partially locking the left section of the plate, he started to ask; "So why did you decided to come down so early?" At this time she had circled around the small hole and took a seat in the booth that was positioned directly across from the kitchen; "Well catching a man dressing was not the _whole_ reason!" Koha said in a playful voice that brought a smile to both of their faces. "I actually planned on looking around the ship; however, it is a lot smaller that i actually anticipated!" She said as she put her right leg onto of her leg. Kantos chuckled as he started to strap his leg armor and supports into place, unseen to her he was shaking his head and stated "Well these ships were not built for large parties or for long term voyages," still giggling from a few seconds ago, he then poked his head out from out of the hole and continued; "These ships were built for planet observation and for short term espionage against an enemy fleet!"

Koha at that point had taken off her cloke, and placed it on the table of the booth she was sitting in. She had placed her legs outside of the booth, facing the hole where Kantos was arming himself. Koha looked at the computer stations and asked "So are you still able to conduct servalience with that old equipment?" Kantos brought his head back into view and turned to view the equipment. "With the original equipment all you would get would be static." Kantos spoke as he started to put his right gauntlet on his wrist. "The original equipment was damaged beyond repair," he continued "The monitoring system is one of the few things in this ship that is not actually to spec; With this we can actually break into their inter-ship communications, instead of just monitoring ship-to-ship or long range communication."

Koha started to move towards the hole as Kantos finished putting the gauntlets on his wrists. Koha looked down at him and asked "If we are going to an ice planet, how are you gonna use _that_ effectively?" Kantos smiled up at her as he started to put his helmet on, which unlike the clones, had a full visor instead of the copy Maldilorian T-visor helm. Then, with practice hands, he started to work on a terminal that was hidden away in the left gauntlet. Just seconds after he looked up, Kanos completely vanished; as if he was thin air. Koha moved her foot over the hole that he stood in and made contact with nothing. Starting to turn around, she the room completely deserted except for her. Koha reached out with the force and within seconds shut down the cloke, where he visualized just steps from the doorway to the cockpit. He pulled of his helmet, as his brown hair remained flattened out from the weight. He looked at her and stated "Would you like to know more about the ship that you have been 'given'?" Koha giggled slightly as she passed him as they entered the cockpit.

The cockpit was much larger than most would have imagined, being capable of seating up to four fairly comfortably in tall backed bucket seats which had only 90°s of movement area. Koha started to examine the controls from the co-pilot seat moving her fingers over the basic language labels which were placed just above the traditional Sith text. Koha looked back at Kantos, who was still standing in the doorway. "You have studied the culture and equipment if the Sith for years, and you never bothered to learn the language?" she asked with some amusement in her voice. "They are not for me." He looked at her with the same amount of amusement she had. Shaking her head she started to activate the engines, "Sith was a small part of the Jedi training," speaking just loud enough to hear "So this is for the rest of the troops then?" Kantos put his face up to his chin rubbing his five o'clock shadow. _I guess these people are filled with surprises_ He thought to himself. The sounds of a second set of feet started to echo through the ship. An older man in a clone flight helmet and flight suit started for the bridge. "I did not realise that it was a casual mission!" the sarcasm drooling from his voice. "I guess you are the 'pilot'" Kantos said as the man stripped off his helmet. "The name's Philps!" he said reaching out for a hand shake. After the shake Koha poked her head from out of the cockpit and asked "Are you to going to talk all day or are we going to go?" Kantos looked at her in confusion, "Go where?" he asked. "Well Master Ol thought it would be better if we would have a peak around before the the Liberate actually arrived!" Koha replied.

Kantos started to get annoyed, "And no one thought it would have been a good idea to inform me of this?" he asked looking directly at her. "Well we did not know where you were!" She claimed "How were to get the message to you?" she asked with the same level of annoyance in her voice as he had in his. Philps moved towards the cockpit, patting Kantos on the shoulder just before murmuring "surprise!" under his breath as he passed. In a mild shock, Kantos moved to the co-pilots seat to fully prepare for departure.

Brutic Murr

Jedi Enclave, Dantooine

1.5 years before order 66

The rest of the trip back to the enclave was fairly pleasant; after the two reunited near a stall filled with used training equipment, his master carrying in tow several wooden swords, to replace the one that the two of them destroyed earlier. The two men walked in silence down the road, the sounds of the nighttime bazaar slowly fading into silence. The twilight had been slow but surely overtaken by the street lamps that guided the way. after about thirty minutes had passed, the building had just come into sight, its palisade intimidating in the darkness.

Kiz walked ahead of him and turned around to face his former apprentice. "We both know what is gonna happen next." Brutic looked at his old master in a mild dismay. "What are you talking about?" successfully masking any shock that would have reflected in his voice if he had not known that this would have came up sooner or later. "Don't play coy with me!" Kiz said in an almost mocking tone. "We both know that if i would not have stopped, you would have played with your food for a bit, said good night to me, and sneak out your window in order to play in your treasure trove and visit whoever you picked up while you are here." Kiz want on, with an annoyed routine matter-of-fact undertone in his voice. Brutic looked at his master in almost complete shock "How did you know?" he asked, trying to keep his voice low, to keep the guards from hearing the two talk. "About what?" Kiz asked, "The money; i figured that out after you returned!" Kiz continued on "The day you said you were going to go and see the caves was my first guess," Kiz explained as Brutic's face was replaced with the features of amusement "And that also lead me to believe that you had also been visiting someone for at least the time you have been here! I _was_ your age once." Kiz said still in that mocking tone but somewhere in it was the sound of pride accompanying it. "You caught me." Brutic said raising his hands as if he was surrendering to an enemy. "So what are we going to do about this?" Brutic asked his former master. "Well _I_ am gonna say i heard something about you watching the fights in town before i left," Kiz said with a particular inflection on the I "While _you _tell_ 'em_ about your deployment tomorrow!" Brutic looked towards his old master and said "_She_ already knows..." Brutic replied, looking quite sheepishly at the ground as he said it. Kiz looked at his former apprentice with a smile shook his head, trying as hard as he could not to laugh and replied to his former apprentice "Well... best not to keep her waiting then!" Brutic, whose face was blood red, bowed to his master and turned away as his master said "Give 'er hell for me kid."

The walk to his speeder was a quiet one, however Kiz's confrontation pushed up his departure time. The trip however took longer than it typically did, due to the fact that his speeder (and his bedroom window) was on the far side of the enclave building. This followed by the dirt road by night travel, made the journey, made for some interesting complications, including avoiding a clone patrol passing by the building during the evening. With the force, Brutic guided his way through the darkness, with relative ease arriving within a reasonable time without any true hang ups. Running towards a field covered with bales of straw, he began to move the straw with the force. The straw hovered in the air, weightless when it came to the power of the force. Under the straw was a small swoop bike, which fit perfectly underneath the small indented that was at the bottom of the bale.

Hopping on the bike, he turned on the ignition, slowly causing the bike to levatate from its grounded position. The purr of the engine was a welcomed sign for Brutic, who started to rev the motor, with each twist of the throttle louder than the last. After several moments at idol, Brutic put the Swoop into gear and started to drive west. During the ride, he had always passed the Republic Clone Barracks, which were entrenched all around and were lit up enough to resemble a small city. The view only lasted a few seconds at the most, but the sight was always something to see.

The rest of the trip consisted of fields that, in the moon light, looked endlessly spread across the the plains. After about an hour of riding, he started to slow down as he closed in on a small underground house, in which the porch light was left on. Brutic brought the bike to a complete stop almost a full twenty paces from the doorway, where he landed it andshut off the ignition. Patting his hair down, he started to move to the door of the house, when he started to feel sad. _This might be the last night we ever see another _He thought to himself grimly as he reached the door. The door was a red vertical sliding door, with a keypad and a red and green light which was to the right hand framing. At the moment, the red light was on, however after pressing the right code in, the light turned green and slid up for Brutic as he started to pass through. Stepping down the first several steps, he heard the door slam shut behind him, and setting of a small buzzer, stating it was locked again.

Slowly making his way down the steps, he heard movement down stairs; The soft clatter of dishes and the jingling of flatware hitting the table. At the landing of the steps, he looked upon a frail looking red-headed woman, setting a table. She looked up at Brutic with an expression of shock and pleasure. She finished putting down the plates and spoke. "You are early!" she said in a joyful tone as the two of them walked towards each other. when they met Brutic pulled her close, kissing her as soon as she was in his arms. the kiss did not last long, however the embrace lasted several minutes.

Brutic kissed the top of her head and spoke softly "I love you Terra." She looked up at him; her bright purple eyes looking into his brown ones. She them looked away, burying her face into his muscular chest. She then began to speak "I love you to Bru," her voice shaking in sadness, "But everything will be ok, from the memo you shown me they are just going to re-garrison you on Corasont!" she continued with some optimism in the voice as she wiped away her tears. Brutic looked at her, trying to maintain his composure "Sure..." the uncertainty set in his voice. The two of them parted, Brutic was still in range to place his right hand by her face, rubbing his thumb across her cheek as she placed her and over his and started to speak in amicor confident voice "Well we better hurry, the food will be getting cold soon." Brutic looked at her, and as he smiles he said "Food sounds wonderful!"

Brutic sat down as Terra went back into the kitchen. Terra came back with a dish with a serving of meat along with a small serving of steamed vegetables. The two sat next to eachother and just talked. He told her about the sparring incident earlier that day and she talked about her progress on one of the MTT's that Brutic "lost" when he was involved with the salvage protection towards the end of his short tour. After dinner, Brutic stood up and walked behind the woman he had came to truly love and kissed her on the shoulder as he rubbed her arms. "I have something to show you." he spoke softly next to her head, just before kissing her cheek.

Terra pushed the chair out from behind her, turning to see Brutic opening the door to the garage that held all of the merchandise that Brutic had stored up during his stay. The interior of the garage was almost the size of a small hanger; there were several MTT'S towards the back of the room, some still had burn barks on them from the battles they were claimed from, The biggest portion of the floor space was filled with the actual droids. Most were the standard model, which had been modified with heavier armor along with better target tracking software and internal communication systems; However several dozen Super Battle Droids and destroyer droids were present. At the moment, a destroyer droid was on Terra's work bench, the spots where the extra battery packs had been attached were noticeable as well as the, at the moment partialy, installed tri-prong blaster mini-guns. Brutic pulled out an information crystal out of one of his belt packs, inserting it into the computer that was on a table several paces away from the work bench. The monitor pulled up a program labeled "PROGRAM ADJUSTMENT". "This, my beautiful little grease jockey," Brutic began. turning just enough to see her blush slightly "Is the answer to how we are going to re-program our new products!"

"What is it Bru?" she asked inquisitively, slipping her arms around Brutic's muscular neck. Looking up to her, he replied with some pride in his voice "Allow me to demonstrate! First i need the numbers off of one of your SBD's." She moved to the first one in the group and read off a series of numbers that were carved into the chest plate as Brutic typed it into the program. After several seconds, the Super battle droid came to live. "Please install programing ..." the droid commanded in its flat high pitched computer synthesized voice. Brutic finished typing in information into the computer, striking the finish command with enthusiasm. The droid responded to the commands with the whirring of machinery and the sounds of the fans kicking on. "Objective received," the droid verbally replied, "Protect Mrs. Murr; priority one."

The droid responded with moving in front of Terra, activating its new wrist disrupter cannon as it blocked her front. The droid then began to stand down stating "No hostiles detected..." "Good work!" Brutic said to the droid, "Power down and await future orders." The droid moved back into the position it held before the test was administered.

"Mrs. Murr?" Terra asked teasingly. Brutic looked at her with a smile, just as teasingly retorted "Well I did say I was done with this whole Jedi thing after the war was over!" both moved closer to each other, Terra sat on top of one of the work benches. She crossed her legs right over left "So, what would you due to me if I was Mrs. Murr?" she asked biting her bottom lip as he started to close in. "Well," Brutic started as she re-adjusted her position on the metal table "It would probably be something like this," just before he started to kiss her fully on the mouth, as her legs started to wrap around his waist.

Brutic woke up in bead to the sound of his alarm, hitting the power button just seconds after it went off. He hated to leave her like this, but he had a transport to catch and bags to grab on the way out the door as well. He slipped out of the covers, pulling his pants on his body before he actually touched the floor. As soon as he had gotten up, Brutic turned around to put the covers back over the her sleeping body, his hands softly stroking the silk like skin of the woman as he re-adjusted the covers. After finishing getting dressed, aside from the boots, he placed a letter in a ceramic envelope marked "just in case" on the nightatand next to her, along with the crystal necklace he had made for her. Softly kissing her on the side of her head, in the middle of her red hair, he said at almost a murmur "I'll be back." Than the unexpected happened, she said at whisper level "I know." and started to cuddle with the pillow she was sleeping with. While wiping a tear from his eye, he stepped out of the bedroom, and after putting his boots on, walked up the steps of the house which, unknown to his friends and his teacher, he called home.

Miak Teir

RNS Liberator

8.5 hrs. Till Arrival

1.5 years before Order 66

Miak, after a long and well needed sleep, arrived at the bridge of the Liberator just moments before the ship had dropped out of hyperspace. The bridge was alive with activity; the clones working resembled what could only be described as an evolved insect colony. There was no smut on the screens of the workstations, no comms officers listening in on sporting events, no nothing. The idea of a perfect army was something that Miak had aspired to be a part of ever since he started to study the workings of war; however this concerned him to no means. During the Mygeeto campaign, he had watched from a marksmen position as the clones charged to their deaths at the base of the reactor room, the bodies were piled up high enough to block the stair case. Miak moved off to the side, pulling a flask from out of his vest. The drink was stiff, however after a few months, the alcohol stopped helping. _This is the reason why clones do not make good soldiers_ Miak thought to himself bitterly _No humanity what-so-ever. _

Master Ol-lee stepped beside the Bothan, in his hand was some sort of sandwich. "Little early for that, don't you think?" Ol asked. "Technically not," Miak responded as he screwed the lid of the flask back, just before placing it back in the interior vest pocket. "If anything, I am a little behind today!" the old Bothan. Ol looked sternly at the Bothan, and from his stance, Miak could tell he was debating on whether or not he was going to send him back to his cabin. "I am fine sir." Miak stated as he straightened up his posture, looking the not much younger man in the eyes. Ol looked at him and turned his head "What is our progress on the recon mission?" he yelled, just before turning to Miak. "This is the last time I want to see you drinking on the bridge." Ol scowled as he walked off to the flight deck monitor. _"Star this is Shadow 1; we are permission to lift off." _Kantos's voice stated from the intercom system of the flight control station. Ol picked up a headset and responded "Shadow 1 this is Star; I did not think they could find you Piitt?"

There was silence and then a response _"I was already on ship when they arrived!"_ Kantos responded threw the intercom. Ol looked up to Miak who had a smile on his K-9 featured face. "Shadow 1," Ol directed as the composure returned to his voice, "You are clear for take-off." Miak and Ol looked out the observation window to the left, which held only the emptiness of space all around. Then, from under the ship, the Equilibrium started to move from out under the Liberators hull, just before it jumped to hyperspace. "Do we have an ETA before they arrive?" Ol looked to one of the navigator clones. "They should arrive at the planet in under a hour." The clone replied as he pulled a map of the section of space they currently occupied. The distance looked, and in all reality was, immense without the ability to travel thousands of times faster than the speed of light; however to them it was almost nothing compared to the journeys that they had to take on a daily basis.

"Miak, can I see you in my office?" Ol asked, still looking down at the display table. Miak walked to the small door to the left of the lift and shut the door behind him. He began to sit down on one of the chairs as Ol walked through the door himself. "Sit." Ol commanded softly as he walked around his desk, sitting in what looked to be a leather chair, something that very few people in his order had at their disposal. "I looked at your file before you came aboard," Ol started as he looked for a document on his personal tablet. "Was a merchant guard, personal body guard, counter-sniper training, no wonder you are going out of you're drinking yourself into a damned coma!" Ol continued, much friendlier than what Miak, a seasoned veteran would have been if he had caught his XO drinking on duty.

"Here is what I want you to do," Ol continued on as Miak continued to look at the man stunned, "I want you to go sleep this off for a bit, get yourself an actual meal, none of this shit that they feed the clones, and come back in a few hours." Miak placed his paw like hands over his eyes, his thumb and index finger rubbing the nose ends of his eye sockets. "I am ok…" Miak continued on before he was cut off. "I know that," Ol interjected "I had a talk with a few of the other Jedi you worked with previously as well. But I need you at least partially sober for this… Commander…" This made Miak ruffle his Fu Manchu and stand up. "I will do as you ask, General." He responded just before he turned around. "And Miak?" Ol started, which maid Miak turn his head at the doorway. "Just try to taper yourself off before we get there." He asked in more of the form of a command. Miak started to smile and just nodded before he walked out the door, turning towards the lift to take him to the mess area.

**ONCE AGAIN, EVERYONE PLEASE LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS FOR MY STORY! **


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